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Archives for 2009

Otaku Elimination Game does show what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere

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After the overwhelming response I had with the previous editorial I wrote on how the Anime Blogosphere is filled with posts that are not even closely related to Anime and filled with boring rehash of mostly news and photoshots of figurines, no wonder AnimeNano are filled with not so interesting or good quality posts. I decided to write a second part of the editorial… How OEG shows what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere.

When the Otaku Elimination Game post it’s first review of select blogs, people have shun it outright for being a troll blog, but they do bring a point…. Anime blogs are becoming less about Anime and more about pointless stuff like random Japan news, photo shots of figurines and how much RAM you use on your computer, etc… It eeems that these days, Anime Blogs are becoming way too personal and people are beginning to post personal experiences too much compared to the ratio of actual anime/manga reviews and anime/manga related editorials and commentaries. Sure it’s okay to add your own thoughts to news, but the problem is that news even though you add thoughts to your news can outrun your anime content.

The problem is that the Anime Blogosphere is filled with alot of not so good blogs, believe it or not… Sturgeon’s Law is alive… and 90% of the blogs you see on AnimeNano and in the Anime Blogosphere is crud … and most of these blogs die after a few months and never become active again… The problem is that fansubs have gotten so easy to obtain that bloggers want in and we see more quantity over quality. We seem to forgot that years ago when Anime Blogs are less about what it is today and more like spoilers… The problem is that people seem to not put enough effort in their Anime Blogs, which can we see from the overwhelming majority of not so good blogs on Wordpress.com, and most of these bloggers complain they don’t have enough time and end up not updating. We see way too many copycats of successful anime blogs like That Anime Blog, Random Curiosity, or even Danny Choo that Anime Blogs seem to have no uniqueness, which the OEG seems to be stressing greatly… Bloggers should be more creative and make their blogs more unique… perhaps making your own format and even doing something more creative… Innovation isn’t the problem, but quality of content and the number of copycat blogs out there…

Lastly, AnimeNano seems to be less about Anime and Manga, but more on pointless and uninteresting things about Japan and Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/Light Novel unrelated stuff. As pointed out, AnimeNano atleast doesn’t have Sankaku, but it still doesn’t make it any better because there is still blogs like Sankaku out there that doesn’t even talk about the stuff I mentioned… Anime Nano seriously need some kind of feature that allow you to flag that kind of content so that it won’t pollute AnimeNano… (No offense to anyone who operate that type of blog) or a better way, have a option to view Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/etc related stuff in one feed and another feed with Japan stuff, video games, etc.

The OEG should make people want to improve their blogs, not go in the corner and fear about their blogs being attacked and not doing something about it… Also, Bloggers should blog more, emphasizing on quality posts and make their blogs more unique from other blogs.

Note: I’m not against any kind of censorship whatsoever. I’m hoping I’m not beating a dead horse over this… but this will be the last post on this matter.

Read moreOtaku Elimination Game does show what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere
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Editorial: What ever happen to innovation in the AniBlogosphere?

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My view of the Anime Blogosphere in General...
My view of the Anime Blogosphere in General...

The OEG attempted to jumpstart the half-dead blogosphere, but it seems to only cause people to question them or even outright show themselves as internet trolls by other bloggers and one blogger did their work for them already. The problem is that the Aniblogosphere in my view is alot less on Anime and Manga or anything exciting and more about just news on Japan, which we can get from ANN or even Danny Choo. We don’t need the same post on Final Fantasy XIII elixir… It’s already covered nor we need to know about random Japanese news or happenings… It’s been done by so many blogs that it’s not funny anymore… just look at the few posts I found on AnimeNano…

The same, old... news. Nothing interesting about it.
The same... old... news. There's nothing interesting about it.

Posting news is pretty generic and not exciting in my opinion nor it will help solve the ever troubling problem of the half-dead Anime Blogosphere. Bloggers should not only review Anime, Manga or even anything related to it, they should drive innovation and do something that haven’t done like a project or something that will interests the readers such as sharing your thoughts about other things like visual novels or making commentaries on characters or anime you have interest in or do something creative besides posting news… That’s Anime News Network’s job, not yours. I highly doubt you will get a lot of viewers that way… It’s not wrong or anything, but bloggers should tone it down a bit and start doing something innovative besides copying like Microsoft copying ideas from Mac OS X and KDE/Linux/whatever for example. That way, bloggers can be more happier that the Anime Blogosphere isn’t half-dead anymore.

Remember, it’s you that can reignite the Anime Blogosphere by innovating… It’s not my job to push you to innovate, it’s yours. Otherwise, it will stay like that if nothing is done and most wouldn’t like a half-dead Anime Blogosphere, would you?

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Hayate no Gotoku – First Impressions

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What sorta interests me about this anime is pretty much the third episode of Nogizaka Haruka Purezza, although the parody of a episode is similar to Hayate no Gotoku, but the original always a bit better. Touka and Nagi, ironically is voiced by the supposed by the Queen of Tsundere, Kugimiya Rie, the voice of other famous loli-tsundere characters like Shana, Louise and Taiga.

From watching the first five episodes of Hayate no Gotoku, it was pretty entertaining comedy. Hayate, a unlucky, ordinary sixteen year old boy is forced to work since eight years old since his irresponsible parents and he ended up getting fired because of his age. Knowing that his parents sold him to some “very nice people” (actually a Yakuza, Japanese mafia) and he runs away. He ends up in the park and sees a little girl and then confess to her with his intentions to kidnap her, but that girl actually took the confession seriously. He tried his plan, but failed and collapses. A woman gives him a scarf and he wakes up. He finds out that Nagi was kidnapped, so he took the woman’s bike and cases after the kidnappers and eventually saves Nagi, but he was injured and he was treated at Nagi’s mansion where his wish comes true, he gets a job as Nagi’s butler. He becomes officially a butler after proving himself by defeating the robot, although he ended up getting electrocuted and having to be treated again.

The episodes were pretty funny and had several references to other anime and also a complete parody of the typical action shouen anime, although there isn’t really much action to be seen and it’s mainly for comedy purpose. Oddly enough, although Hayate is pretty strong, his appearance looks vastly young and rather effeminate, a main reason why Nagi and Maria would eventually dress him in feminine clothing… (haven’t got there, but it would be pretty funny.) Like always, Nagi is a uber tsundere paired with her twin tails… more so since she is voiced by the tsundere queen. The animation was good, so I have no complaints about it…

Would I continue…. Yes, I probably would, but I would get the DVDs first before continuing, but would I blog it… Not so much since the number of episodes are pretty big (52 episodes) and it would take alot of work to blog it.

Read moreHayate no Gotoku – First Impressions
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Seitokai no Ichizon – Episode 8 Thoughts and Impressions

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Elise-chan is cute, but I'm no lolicon.
Elise-chan is cute, but I'm no lolicon.

Episode 8 was even funnier than the last… and Ken seems to become even more indecisive than ever and Elise-chan, Lilicia’s younger sister, which was sent for her evil scheme of writing libel about the student council, but it sorta backfired.
…

Read moreSeitokai no Ichizon – Episode 8 Thoughts and Impressions
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Some things before Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so I won’t likely make any updates on this blog, but before I leave for a day, I will make the following updates reguarding the Karaoke Contest and also MAL Client OS X and MAL Lite:

Karaoke Contest

I have made a change earlier that no effects or any alterations of the recording may be used. You may only use effects to reduce any grainy/background noise, but anything but that may not be used. I will be posting further details after I come back from Thanksgiving and hopefully start it on Monday.

MAL Client OS X and MAL Lite

I have made several changes to the MAL updating program for Mac OS X and also the lightweight, minimalist solution on Windows and Linux. MAL Client OS X 0.3.6 now features a new interface similar to the one on Finder. If used on Tiger and Panther, the interface will default to a sheet metal feel. Manga list lookup is added, but when you double click on a item, you can view the information about it on the browser. No manga updating is added yet since there isn’t enough API to implement it yet. Lastly, Melative updating can be done without updating your MAL status. You can make a update by going to the anime information window and clicking “Post Melative Update” on the toolbar.

I apologize that I can’t get the help updated and the Sparkle appcast updated since the FTP is down. Once it comes up, I will post the Sparkle update. For now, you need to download the disk image.

Download MAL Client OS X 0.3.6

For MAL Lite 1.1.2, I restored the full list featured on MAL Client OS X and added a tray icon. Download 1.1.2

I hope you a nice and joyful Thanksgiving… I will resume blogging on Friday after shopping on Black Friday and hopefully cover Kobato Episode 7 and Seitokai no Ichizon Episode 8.

Read moreSome things before Thanksgiving
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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Second Season – Episode 8 Impressions

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Oh no... more girls in Yuuto's "Unwanted Harem?"
Oh no... more girls in Yuuto's "Unwanted Harem?"

This time it’s a Mika centered episode and yes, it’s the last of the episodes that don’t focus on Haruka and her secret (which so far about 4 episodes in the season don’t have her in the spotlight, which some of the complaints are coming from.)
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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Final Impressions

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I have completed the first season nearly a week ago and it was a pretty good concept of a story which is pretty unique. In this story, they took a extraordinary nice guy and a high class girl who have one major flaw of being a otaku. That is just the surface of the story since Nogizaka Haruka is not entirely about otaku subculture in shows like Lucky Star. This twist, however makes things more interesting, but is it well executed? Let’s find out, shall we?

Content

The story is a typical romance story… a ordinary guy meets a girl. However there is a big twist in this story. Nogizaka Haruka, an ojou is the most unattainable girl in school with rejections up to the triple digits. Yuuto bumps into Haruka in the library after Yuuto returns the book and the magazine she took out revealed her secret, her love for Anime and Manga, which is viewed negatively for people of her class. However, Yuuto accepts her secret and will keep it as a secret. Throughout the series, the relationship between Haruka and Yuuto builds up with some help of Mika (Haruka’s sister), Nanami and Hazuki. Also with that, another girl is thrown in called Shiina which Yuuto accidently bumps into which causes her to gain some kind of a romantic desire of her becoming his boyfriend, although Yuuto only seems to like Haruka.

The series itself throws some references to other anime. The most references shown is Shakugan no Shana.

What this anime tries to shows the sad realization of how Otaku are viewed in real life. In real life, Otakus are viewed negatively because Otaku means house in Japanese, meaning that people who are otakus spend time watching and obsessing over anime, manga or playing games/visual novels and never leave the house, meaning that it can cause a lack of social skills. This is viewed when Yuuto tries to over up Haruka’s secret when a comiket catalog falls out of her bag when she fell and her father, Gentou which does not want her daughter to watch anime and read manga, but eventually allowed with the help of her mother.

There are some fanservice moments in Nogizaka Haruka, but nothing too excessive.

Animation

Diomedea did a pretty good job with animating Nogizaka Haruka, so there isn’t really much to comment here.

Characters

The characters in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is what you expect from a romance comedy, but not so much. I will talk about the most important characters, but besides from those, Nanami and Hazuki, Nogizaka’s maids who seems to be shown most of the story and help with Haruka and Yuuto and also help stop Gentou before his wife comes. Another is Ruko and Yukari, who seems to be alcoholics and finally, Haruka’s parents, Gentou, the hot headed father and Akiho, the seemingly beautiful, despite her age and intelligent mother.

Ayase Yuuto – The seemingly, extraordinary nice guy who seems to understand everyone’s feelings… This is somewhat the departure of the losers and jerks that are typical in harem/romance comedy anime, but there are some flaws that are more apparent in the second season with his character. Also, his personality seems to be more of a gentleman, although his class is lower than the jerkass Shutto, which in contrast is a spoiled brat and causing him at sometimes, being unworthy for being Haruka’s boyfriend, although he overcomes it, but the notion of him being a lower class than Haruka will be stuck in his mind for some time.

Nogizaka Haruka – The moe ojou and also have a terrible secret of being a Otaku, which is viewed negatively, especially in the higher class she is in. Haruka seems to be a very sweet character, which mainly causes most of the terribly sweet moments between Haruka and Yuuto. Although Haruka is really smart and is top of her class, she is somewhat a dojikko.

Nogizaka Mika – Haruka’s younger sister, but seemingly dirty for her age and already talking about sexual stuff? Mika in comparison is more easygoing and not as naive as Haruka… and even calls Yuuto, “Onii-chan.” It makes me wonder.

Amamiya Shiina – The second girl in Yuuto’s love triangle, although Yuuto does not have any romantic relationship with her and her being only a friend. With her bumping into him causes her to have a romantic interest with Yuuto.

Music

The music from Nogizaka Haruka was pretty good… We are presented with a pretty catchy opening theme which seems to have a fast pace and a ending theme with maids (seriously, who doesn’t like maids). The extra image songs not played in the anime sounded pretty decent, so no complaints.

Conclusion

The first season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is a pretty good watch for those who are sick of a indecisive harems and romance comedies filled with too much fanservice and a jerky male lead. For those who are looking for a deep romantic story or a non-cliched romance anime, you may come off disappointed. Nogizaka Haruka is a pretty good comedy romance anime in my opinion so far… but I would say since I haven’t watched other yet.

Once you finish with the first season, I suggest taking a look at the second, although it’s somewhat weak in content and have a little more fanservice, but you may find it just as enjoyable.

Overall Rating

8.72/10, B+, Outstanding

Attribution Information

This image is from here

Read moreNogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Final Impressions
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Kobato – Episode 6 Impressions

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OMG.... It's a bird...
OMG…. It’s a bird…

I have to admit, while this episode of Kobato is pretty good, it was slower than normal… and Kobato being the a complete Dojikko, which is shown more in this episode than earlier episodes with her tripping and hitting her head.

This episode is basically the nursery goes on a field trip and Kobato while getting her bag answers the phone call from the loan shark villain saying that he will shut down the nursery. She goes and tell Fujimoto what happened and he said to not to tell Sayaka because it will upset her. While they went on the trip, Ioryogi goes into another dimension and ask the wolf to investigate what happened to the nursery. After while, Kobato came back from the trip and brought back a four leaf clover. However, Ioryogi is bothered by the findings the white messaging bird brought back telling that the master who owned the nursery was forced to take a loan from a loan shark before he died two years later and now they are harassing Sayaka, which brings them a difficult task of filling up the bottle and saving the nursery at the same time.

The episode itself introduced to Ioryogi’s buddies and also the situation of the loan sharks that happened in the last episode… seeing that, what previously looked like a fluffy and soft anime just have turned into a dark and dramatic… Again.. it’s the working of CLAMP again… =p

Verdict

8.5/10

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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Second Season – Episode 7

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The way Shiina injured herself is pretty lame...
The way Shiina injured herself is pretty lame...

Although they somewhat up the fanservice, it’s away from the usual Haruka-Yuuto development and Shiina was given some screen time… Too bad it was too late since Shiina have no way in hell that she will win over Yuuto’s heart although some people perfer her to be the girl that Yuuto should be as a couple instead of Haruka…

…

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Seitokai no Ichizon – Episode 7 Thoughts and Impressions

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Mokyu~ Mokyu~
Mokyu~ Mokyu~

Well, this episode was really funny in a sense… not because it shoved references like Lucky Star did with going overboard and putting it in random spots, but actually made it work so it is funny. This is basically an episode where Kurimu decide that the whole student council should go on a summer trip to Tokyo by a overnight train. However, what the girls packed show a lot about their personality and interests. Minatsu hardly packed everything, Mafuyu packing all her game consoles (which looks like a computer, a Wii and a Playstation 2) which makes the suitcase very heavy and also her favorite treat that seems to heal her HP, Chizuru have a completely normal suitcase with her belongings although Ken thought there was something dangerous in there and lastly, Kurimu with a bag full of toys.

Night time came (Ken being chained and blindfolded) and Chizuru does something to Kurimu before she goes to sleep and Minatsu can’t recognizes Mafuyu without her ribbon on her head which causes Mafuyu becoming upset and relating it to a RPG she is playing. Chizuru goes to sleep, but she sleeps without anything on which makes Ken goes crazy.

What... Mafuyu was gaming all night long?
What... Mafuyu was gaming all night long?
Is this Marimite? and what is Kurimu is doing with her?
Is this Marimite? and what is Kurimu is doing with her?

Next morning, Minatsu wakes up and finds that Kurimu was missing, but actually sleeping with Chizuru. She also finds that Mafuyu spent all night playing with her Playstation Portable. The train announced that the train arrived at Tokyo and after they got there, they spent the whole day in the hotel room because it was too hot outside and night time came and they decide to tell scary stories such as Kurimu ended up getting murdered with knives(does this reminds you about a very familiar sound-based visual novel named Higurashi?) which scares the heck out of her. Kurimu not wanting to hear any more of these stories decides on catchphrases for each person and they cosplayed which was the most hilarious part in this episode.

Not sure about the cosplays though, but here is what they dressed up as:
Kurimu – Some kind of robot
Minatsu – Some classy dress
Ken: Maid uniform and some wacky shouen hairstyle
Mafuyu: Some school uniform
Chizuru: A Sheep… Errr… mokyuu~ (So Moe!)

The funny thing is that Chizuru after they got back still dresses in that outfit saying mokyuu~. I guess she does have a cute side of her after all. =p

The episode itself is the best I have seen so far in the whole season… the references are better executed in this one and it was very funny in many instances… Too bad some people have already wrote it off already even though it have gotten better… and you can never forget the Mokyuu~ so moe…

Verdict

9.2/10

Read moreSeitokai no Ichizon – Episode 7 Thoughts and Impressions
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Editorial: Sad state of MyAnimeList and it's APIs

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MyAnimeList is probably the most used site by most anime viewers and bloggers besides AniDB, melative, or Anime Planet to log all the watched anime and also manga, although not everyone read manga compared to Anime. However, I feel that MyAnimeList just like Facebook is cluttered and have too much going on and you have to log in just to update your list and most of the time, you forget to update that list. This is why there are programs like MAL Updater on Windows and MAL Client OS X on Mac OS X with a small number of other MAL Clients. However, MAL is not making it easy with developers to create these programs and I already have some trouble trying to figure out how to implement it.

The problem is that the MAL API is very incomplete. There is no documentation on how to obtain the list or even get the information of the Anime using the APIs. sliceoflifer made the Unofficial MAL API , which is the supposed replacement of the MAL API and also makes life easier since all the functions are there and you can easily implement the API. The problem is, there is no Manga support. With the Official MAL API, there is a severe lack of information on how to use the API and the lack of JSON support. Also, it’s buggy since in some instances, searching for titles like Kampfer does not even pop up any results due to the bad data spit out by the official MAL API.

MyAnimeList in my opinion is becoming too big and the developer APIs are left neglected for months and left to rot. MAL Updater is a closed sourced program and there is no native open source solution (No, AniChou does not count as native alternative) that would work natively on Windows or even a full Mac solution. The developer of MAL Updater have to resort largely with HTML scraping which is a pain in the neck to figure out and I commend him on his effort to do so… Why should developers be left having to do this time consuming process of making code to get rid of the HTML tags and convert it to XML? Does MAL want developers make more programs that would work with MAL and instant updating instead of resorting to the near-monopoly MAL Updater…

Another gripe is that their site is STILL not iPhone friendly or perhaps smartphone friendly… Most sites these days have iPhone versions of the website since the iPhone grew in popularity due to it’s powerful browser. iPhone friendly MAL would help since if some people watch anime on the TV and don’t have their laptop on or want to go to a computer just to update their status, they can do it easily on the iPhone. Why not jump on a iPhone solution for MAL, either a iPhone App or a iPhone friendly website… It shouldn’t be terribly hard to do since popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter already have one with their own iPhone apps.

Hopefully you take these suggestions seriously and help make MAL better, or I have to resort more with melative since it’s works alot better… (and why not join in on the fun).

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Seitokai no Ichizon – Episodes 4-6 Thoughts and Impressions

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So, the student council is going to have a Keion-bu????
So, the student council is going to have a Keion-bu????

Oh god… Seitokai no Ichizon is funny in a very weird way… that I can’t stop laughing… Mostly with Episodes 4-5 with all those anime references… most notably the K-ON parody… that pretty much cracked me up and also with Mafuyu’s boy’s love story with Ken and Ken wanting Minatsu cooking breakfast for him in a naked apron, accidentally seeing Kurimu in the shower, Chizuru asking him to put suntan oil on her and Mafuyu tripping and saying she isn’t wearing underwear. (Ken must be one perverted person and very desperate to get his so called harem, lol).

Episode 5 made it even funnier… Ken is forced to wear a blindfold which he can’t take off which makes him come up with weird imagination and ecchi stuff… and somehow his blindfold came off and he saw them in swimsuits which makes him crazy…. and have him locked up in the locker.

We also get to see Minatsu with a different look.

She looks alot prettier with her hair down... =p
She looks alot prettier with her hair down... =p

Episode 6 is again with more hilarious moments… but a sad realization that Minatsu and Mafuyu are going to transfer… at the end of the school year… or who knows….

Overall, the series gets better by time goes on… I can’t see why some people are giving negative opinions about it, it’s pretty good mindless, lighthearted comedy… Atleast they haven’t go overboard on the Haruhi references… but Seitokai no Ichizon works alot better in Anime and Manga form than the light novel, I have to admit….

Verdict

Episodes 4-5: 8.3/10
Episode 6: 8.5/10

Read moreSeitokai no Ichizon – Episodes 4-6 Thoughts and Impressions
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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Episode 11-12 (END)

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Sorry Shutto, but you just got pwned!
Sorry Shutto, but you just got pwned!

Now it’s Haruka’s birthday which she have on her private island… but how this effects Yuuto personally since he is a class lower than Haruka or will love prevail even though there are class differences.

Also, this is also a beach episode… can’t have an romance comedy without it.
…

Read moreNogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Episode 11-12 (END)
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MAL Client OS X 0.3.4 and MAL Updater OS X 1.2b GUI Released

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What are you doing?
What are you doing?

MAL Client OS X 0.3.4 is now released with new features allowing you to search for information on AniDB and Tokyotosho and sharing of a title to a email with the URL to the MAL Page… just add a message and send. Minor changes made to melative updating to reflect the changes made to the APIs.

Major change is that MAL Updater OS X GUI is now included with the MAL Client OS X distribution. This is a simple frontend to TakakoShimizu’s MAL Updater OS X, which is a command line script programmed in Ruby that allows Mac users to scrobble their Anime from MPlayer, Quicktime and VLC. The drawback is that the setup script does not always work and you cannot turn it off unless you get rid of the launchd file which will disable the automatic scrobbling. There is a better way to this issue.

MAL Updater OS X GUI is just a frontend to this mess and allows you to save your login info securely which will be used for automatically generating the script needed for MAL Updater OS X when scrobbling is turned on. When you close or stop scrobbling, the script is deleted so people won’t easily find your MAL password. The GUI is a lightweight program and only uses around 10 MB of RAM. Note that you still need Growl installed to find out what is scrobbled or you have to resort to the log files to find out.

The only drawback is that MAL Updater OS X script is outdated by .1 (since 1.3 isn’t available for download), so I can only include 1.2 for the time being. Once 1.3 is posted again or if he decides to update it, I will add it to the package and also make some improvements to the GUI.

The source code for the MAL Updater OS X GUI is located in the malclientosx SVN at Google Code.

In addition, a Linux version of MAL Lite is now available for download here (1.7 MB). GTK+ 2 is required to run the program and will work with any Linux distro. To run it, unzip and double click on “MALLite”

Download MAL Client OS X 0.3.4 with MAL Updater OS X GUI (9 MB, Universal Binary)

Read moreMAL Client OS X 0.3.4 and MAL Updater OS X 1.2b GUI Released
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Seitokai no Ichizon – Episodes 1-3 Thoughts and Impressions

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I'll pass this exam for sure this time!
I'll pass this exam for sure this time!

Seitokai no Ichizon feels like another Lucky Star in a sense they shove other references to other anime, but it’s not the same. This time, all the characters have otaku interests (besides from Kurimu) which involves:
– Ken — Moe Harem Anime and H Game Otaku.
– Chizuru — Lolicon and Yuri Fangirl.
– Minatsu — Hot Blooded and Shounen Fighting Series Fangirl.
– Mafuyu — Yaoi Fangirl Gamer Girl.

It seems that Ken is in to create a harem out of the entire student council and it helps since he is the only male in the student council (and I’m guessing he is playing too much eroge and bishoujo games).

In my impressions of watching it, the series is funny in a weird way… I can’t keep myself from laughing… obviously… and also there is virtually no plot in this series too to the likes of Lucky Star. The funny thing is that I find Kurimu rather cute… So far, the episodes consists of random stuff and sorting out/approving stuff from clubs in the first episode, Kurimu trying to pass her exam and fails (alot worse than Yui from K-ON! since she failed after studying while Yui ends up passing) and the journal club leader Lilicia, writing libel/negative things about the Student Council since she couldn’t win a position and gets owned by Ken saying the rumor is true because after all… he wants a harem of his own…

The animation and the music is good and the level of fanservice is not excessive, so I might continue watching just for the thrill of it… although the content is completely random…

Verdict

Episode 1: 7.8/10
Episode 2-3: 8/10

Read moreSeitokai no Ichizon – Episodes 1-3 Thoughts and Impressions
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Kobato – Episode 5 Impressions

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More konpeito?!!!!
More konpeito?!!!!

It seems like ages since Kobato aired since there was no Kobato last week since there was a baseball game going on (damn baseball games, they ruin everything! (refer back to Lucky Star Episode 4)). Anyways, Loansharking can never get this dangerous… and actually illegal in the 50 states. Well, Kobato seems to save the day oddly and drove all those delinquents and Ioryogi actually bites one of the delinquent’s foot (that got to hurt).

The episode is basically about a writer who sits on the park bench and does not want Kobato to read the book about fireflies. It was revealed later that it was the last book written by Mr. Mori. Knowing this, she goes to the library to find information and the books eventually went on top of Ioryogi. Then Kobato asks Mr. Mori to look at fireflies at night and they did. There, he tells a sad story about his ex-girlfriend who made the cover of the book and she wanted to look at fireflies, but he couldn’t since he was busy. The accident happened that causes her to be injured badly and she wanted to look at the fireflies badly. When they got to the spot in the book, they found out that there are actually fireflies. After seeing them, he regained his motive to start writing again and thus Kobato healed another heart.

The episode itself is good, but tear-jerking a little bit with his story. most of the series so far have been comedy-based, but it seems that we hit some drama, haven’t we? Anyways, I feel that this episode was pretty heartwarming and was actually good…

Verdict

8.9/10

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Editorial: Otaku Elimination, or Anime Blog Bashing?

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Time for the Otaku Elimination Game... It's more like bash the Anime Bloggers.

What I didn’t know is that there is a game out there called the “Otaku Elimination Game” which someone check on the blog and criticizes on them. Looks good on paper, but the problem is the game is in my view is a personal attack on the bloggers than just giving constructive criticism so that people can improve on their anime blogs. After reading the first post, it’s more like X can’t microblog or y is a sheep because he uses a Mac and a iPhone or z liking the run-of-the -mill anime and characters.

Come on, get real… Personal attacks don’t solve anything or improve anything… It could be the same to internet trolling, let’s throw personal attacks because someone don’t necessarily agree with you… Not to mention, it’s very unprofessional to go on and attack someone personally because their blog have flaws or it’s something you don’t like… It went so far that Seinime at his blog took matters in his own hand and parodied the Otaku Elimination Game post…

If you really want constructive criticism, you should ask someone to look at your blog and have them make suggestions instead of participating in this pointless attack dog of a game… It’s no better than political candidates mudslinging each other with negative campaigning.

Update: It seems that they wrote a reply to this madness, but I still think they are wasting their time with their faux rage and insults instead of giving constructive criticism… Again, don’t feed their trolls, and they will eventually give up and go get a life. No point in wasting your time reading about them when they don’t know what the hell is a Otaku is or lists specifics what a Otaku should be.

You know that people would only take your so called “faux rage” or harsh criticism as an attack and they won’t probably care or give a crap what you say. Criticism is only helpful when it’s constructive and not harsh, so it can be more helpful and the person that give the criticism won’t look like a complete a-hole. That what I got to say about the whole Otaku Elimination thing, it’s completely stupid and a waste of time raging over. =p

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Midseason Impressions – Part 1

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Thought it would be a mediocre season… For the most part, this is true since there isn’t much to see, but I did managed to pick up a few series that interests me, but I’m hoping to add two more at least by the end of next weekend when I post the second part. I was orginally going to post a Midseason report next week, but since Kobato. Ep 5 is not airing this week, I decide I would since I have nothing else better to do at the moment.

Note that this does NOT cover series that are not airing… meaning Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu First Season, Kannagi, sola and Air will not be in this impression.

Series that is covered is:
Kampfer
Kobato.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza
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Editorial: Male Leads – Why I don't like idiots like Shutto.

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Note: This Editorial primarily focuses on Romance and Harem animes in general.

The gripes of most harem anime is that most of the harems come with male leads that the viewer most likely hate. They are either losers, jerks or even perverts. The prime example of the unideal male lead is Makoto from School Days (which everyone seems to want him dead, which in the end he does in the last episode) or even Keitaro from Love Hina for being a pervert and a loser. Male leads like this makes me cringe and want me to stay away from harem anime.

With the viewing of Shutto Sutherland, the jerkass (and abides to the Screw the rules, I have money!) that was introduced in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (first season) episode 11 and again in episode 5 of Purezza when he gets angry at Alice-chan and decides to bully her… Great god, there is a reason why I don’t like these types of male leads in harem anime. They seem to make you angry inside and want you to punch them for the horrible things they do. These type of leads make your blood boil and want to take a chainsaw out… Well… that what is the feeling I had when he was bulling her and also pouring grape wine on top of Yuuto’s head.
…

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Kampfer – Episode 1 Impressions

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After looking at some blogs about it and being quite curious about it, I have watched the first episode and it was not so good at all. As you expect, Kampfer is filled with fanservice, especially with the recent episode that aired that topped off Nogizaka Haruka Purity, and you think that Purity had the most fanservice besides Queen’s Blade, think again.

Genderbending is quite an interesting idea since who doesn’t like seeing yourself as the opposite gender. No wonder genderbending of Haruhi is so popular… Who doesn’t want to see a Kyonko? Kampfer does this with a guy named Natsuru becoming a Kampfer, but needs to transform into a girl which is done with his bracelet. Well, okay… you think the fighting part in the beginning was okay, but it gets alot worse…. We are thrown fanservice, which you know the type 2 is the fanservice that I least desired, unless executed properly and not overdone… They gone overboard with this, especially when Natsuru, as a girl needed to go to the bathroom… that scene was pretty dumb in my opinion. From looking at the screenshots of the next 4 episodes, it’s pretty clear that the fanservice goes even higher, but never reaching the amount in Queen’s Blade, since Queen’s Blade is the king of fanservice animes.

I think one episode is enough and honestly, a waste of 24 minutes of watching it… Better off reading the Kampfer manga or the light novel than watching this because the execution of this is not good… Maybe someone else will appreciate it more than myself, don’t you think? =p

Verdict

6.4/10, Dropped

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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Episodes 7-8

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Oh no! He doesn't look so happy...
Oh no! He doesn't look so happy...

Episode 7 is the continuation of the cliffhanger in Episode 6. and Gento finally flips out when he found out Haruka’s secret and go using his private army in trying to get her back which pretty much ends in a epic battle… or not… Episode 6… Mika going out on a date with Yuuto… and she’s only 14?!…

I know…. I know…
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